Well, for a few years or more I had wondered what the real names of those villains from the Virtual Boy game Panic Bomber were. I believe I may have mentioned that I looked at some Japanese manual scans and noted that the same set of Japanese characters in Pretty Bomber's name were also present in the other villains' names, which meant that they must have the word "Bomber" in their names. Therefore the Americanized names were not correct, probably not at all. Whether this was because of laziness, the tendency to Americanize names at the time, or just a creative tendency on the "translators'" parts, I didn't know. Nevertheless....
I saved the two character pages and was going to upload them and post them here in hopes of someone else translating just the names, but then I took the initiative to at least go out and try to translate them myself first. I don't know any Japanese and had never really translated it before, but I found a little website that has Japanese characters and their phonetic equivalents, and after finding that Pretty Bomber's name matched up correctly, I went away at the rest. Now if I with no previous knowledge or experience of this could just translate this in a half hour or so (much of the time spent trying to figure out the vampire's name), why couldn't professionals who are payed to do this.... do this? Oh well.
Anyway.... without further ado....
Firstly, the scans themselves. You'll find the character pages on 26 and 27, under the lower box labeled "JPN."
Obviously the first two translate as Bonba-man (Bomberman) and Puriti-Bonba (Pretty Bomber). Now for the rest:
US Name: Zach
Original: Bonba-Urufu- Wolf Bomber. Not to be confused with Bomber Woof.
Why Zach? That's my question.
US Name: Partz
Original: Monsutu-Bonba- Monster Bomber.
US Name: Rahtut
Original: Bonba-Mami - Deceiving Spirit Bomber.
Not exactly sure on how this should be put in English, beings as Mami is only four letters and the English equivalent is two words. Suggestions?
US Name: Count Draco-Boom
Original: Bonbaia - Bompire
This one took me forever to understand because it was all one word - no dash between the name and the word "Bomber." I got the name "Bonbaia" but it made no f@#$ing sense to me. Then I did a search for the Japanese equivalent of vampire and realized that it was a name pun. "Banpaia" is vampire in Japanese.
EDIT 3/15: So Bonbaia would really be Bompire in English, not Bomber Vampire.
Well there you have it. Sorry if I go a little too in depth on the largely unimportant details. I might try translating the character descriptions soon, and possibly the stuff in my SB3-4 manuals as well. Then again, it might get too complicated in those areas.
[EDIT:] I'm just going to start translating parts of all the manuals I can get a hold of, mainly the character, boss, and stage names, but possibly other parts as well.
Last edited by Plasma Bomber on Sun Mar 15, 2009 12:19 pm
The stuff is a quick read for me, though I haven't bothered to learn much kanji yet though.
bonba-man
Bomberman
puritei-bonba-
Pretty Bomber
baromu
Balloon is the english name used for it I think, it takes the "bar" from 'baruun' which means balloon, and the 'omu' is either from another word or original. So techinically the name would probably be 'Ballom' or something of the sort in english.
kurin
???
monsuta-bonba-
Monster Bomber
bonba-uruhu
Wolf Bomber
buroru
???
bakebake
taking the 'bake' from 'bakemono', 'bakemono' which means ghost or monster etc, the actual word for ghost would be 'yure', it mentions the word 'obake' in the description which has a similar meaning to 'bakemono' unsure how to translate the name, probably like ghostghost or ghostmonster
hunya
???, literally means limp or flab
bonba-mami-
Mummy Bomber
pasu
Pass?
bonpaia
Bompire or Vampire Bomber
Some of the names are probably a play on words, or just original- which in case they wouldn't have a proper translation. To understand the play on words, you'd need more extensive knowledge on japanese words- though many of the monsters have partially made up names or that were parts that were taken from other words.
Last edited by Razon on Tue Dec 30, 2008 1:46 pm
_________________ "Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they're not entitled to their own facts."
Yeah I hadn't much thought about the possibility of word plays which is why Vampire Bomber took me so long to get. I pretty much got the same, though I'm pretty sure the character is ma instead of mu, making it mami instead of mumi. I guess the website could be wrong though, but that's what it gives. Mummy Bomber certainly rolls off better though.
And hey, I always wondered about the Ballom enemy. The name you got for it is what it stated in the PSX Party Edition manual, yet I've heard other people say Balloon or Balloom or such things. Thanks for taking the time to translate that one.
I looked a little at the SB3 manual and it seemed in the comic that they referred to the Five Bad Bombers as the Heinous 5 Bombers, just as Shiro (the member) said, though I'll have to go back some more because I lost the work I had done on it by accident. On a side note, though, the manual does clearly refer to Bagular as "Professor Bagura."
You're right it was 'ma' instead of 'mu', it was most likely a typo since I went over it real quick and thought about the english translation for it- which in english starts with 'mu' instead of 'ma'. I did that with another word while I was going over it, it's not like it was one of those things that would effect the outcome of the translation- and it sounded right so I didn't bother to double check or not rush translating.
While I was going over some english manuals though, I noticed how they named them differently. The NES one, atleast according to the one name seemed more accurate then the newer names for them.
_________________ "Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they're not entitled to their own facts."
They do look that way, don't they. Except O'Neal - but hey, that sounds a lot like Onil, which is what the Party Edition manual says. I'd like to get a Japanese version of these pages to see what they really are, since they're classic enemies and all.
And once again I lost the work I did on other manuals. I saved it, and I swear it deleted itself because I saved it time and time again. Maybe the images of the text messed it up somehow, but that doesn't make sense because the Panic Bomber file is okay, but.... I guess I'll have to go back and do it a-frickin-gain. I translated all the Super Bomberman 3 names, even found explanations for some of the boss machines' names, the planet names, everything.... and then went on to translate the listed pet names in Super Bomberman 4 as well as every Battle Mode stage. Of course, none of that makes any difference now. ><
I'll just.... go back and do it later again. I'd planned on posting it right now.
Anyway, I saw some stuff in there that matched up with what Shiro had said about the manual when I let him try translating it months ago. I don't think I can feasibly translate the Kanji because it doesn't rely on phonetics, but the Hiragana and Katakana aren't too bad. By the way, I noticed that while all the names (except the SB4 boss machine names) were in Katakana, the SB4 battle mode stage names where in Hiragana. Anybody know why that is? Personally I don't know why there are two sets of characters when they all basically make the same sounds, but I guess I don't know enough about Japanese to say anything about it.
One noticable difference is the existance of the katakana ヴ symbol, which has the sound of 'v'. But is only used in conjunction with a small(pretty sure that it has to be) vowel, in BOTH hiragana and katakana. ヴぁ ヴァ. Katakana is normally used for english style words, ones that were based off of english words for example like sutoroberii(strawberry)- which is ichigo in normal japanese. Katakana can also be used for original words, though you could still find things spelled in hiragana sometimes- this can be for varying reasons.
_________________ "Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they're not entitled to their own facts."
Yeah, I figured. Unfortunately I'll be delaying any more work on this until further notice, as I've got a lot of other stuff to do. I'll come back to it, though, I hate to find these kinds of things left unfinished on the internet.
I hate to go kind of off-topic on my first post (hi guys!), but I've been aiming to translate the meaty chunks of Saturn Bomberman Fight!! for quite some time, though being yet another person who has little knowledge of the language doesn't exactly make it an easy task. I've scanned the manual and translated the name of every character (though some, like Dentai, I don't quite understand the meaning behind it, and my romanisation is probably sloppy. I'm still baffled as to what the Hige Hige bandit is meant to be called), and recorded the story modes of Shiro and Kuro in hopes of having them translated sometime. It's a bit ambitious! I found Denshi Jisho a valuable resource in understanding the meanings behind stuff, if that helps anyone out.
Regarding the names of NES enemies, Bomberman Quest is great for finding the original Japanese name, since practically every enemy is from an older instalment. Ballom is indeed Baromu (バロム), while Onil was Oni-ru (オニ-ル). They're in Katakana, so Jisho doesn't offer helpful meanings behind them.
Hey wow, it's Ragey! Never expected to see you. Awesome!
Thanks for bringing up that Denshi Jisho, that should be a lot of help.
I'll take a look at that manual, though you've probably covered anything I would have been able to do with it. From a quick look, however, I can definately see the word "Hige Hige" starting out the second paragraph about the Hige Hige bandit. So you're probably right about his name. Come to think about it, I can remember something in Jetters where they kept talking about one certain Hige Hige bandit, I think it may have been 12, or maybe 13.
Made a couple revisions up in the first post. Now, I figured out what was going wrong with my text files, so I'm able to translate more from Super Bomberman 3 again. Here we go:
凶悪 ボンバ - Fiendish Bombers, while the first character means heinous, the first two characters in that order mean fiendish. This is the true title of the villains.
Next up, each stage, the character and his/her boss machine:
Stage 1 - モソモソ スタ - Mosomoso Suta - First Star; "Somosomo" is "first place"
マグネツトボンバ- Ma gu ne tsu to Bo n ba - Magnet Bomber
バケロン - Ba ke ro n - "Bakeru" is to appear in disguise.
Monsters: グエ-ル - Gue-ru - Unknown (Frog Monster)
トレント - Torento - Trent? (Tree Monster)
Stage 2 - アチアチ スタ- Achiachi Suta - No idea on this one.
ゴ-レムボンバ- Go re mu Bo n ba - Golem Bomber
ドツガ-ン - Do tsu ga - n - Again, no idea.
Monsters: ロツクン - Rotsukun - Unknown (False Rock monster)
グレイン - Gurein - "Crimson" (Flame monster)
Stage 3 - ブクブク スタ- Bukubuku Suta - Wavy Star, "Bukubuku" means "loose fitting" or "baggy" and this is the only translation that makes sense
プリテイ-ボンバ- Pu ri ti - Bo n ba - Pretty Bomber
ガメプク - Ga me pu ku - Bubble Turtle
Monsters: シ-バル-ン - Shi-baru-n - Sibaloon? (Octopus)
フイツシヤ-マン - Fi tsu sha - man - Fish man? (Spear wielding enemy)
Stage 4 - サラサラ スタ- Sarasara Suta - Rustle Star
ブレインボンバ- Bu re i n Bo n ba - Brain Bomber
ポ ンチヨ- ズ - Po n chi yo - zu - Ponchos
トゲトゲ - Togetoge - "toge" means "thorn" or "splinter" (Skinny cactus)
チクチク - Chikuchiku - "chiku" seems to have something to do with prickling (Fat cactus)
Monsters: フアラ - Fa ru - Pharaoh? (Guess)
ハリケ-ン - Ha ri ke - n - Hurricane (Tornado enemy)
Stage 5 - ユキユキ スタ- Yu ki yu ki Suta - Snow Star
プラズマボンバ- Pu ra zu ma Bo n ba - Plasma Bomber
フリ-ザ-ビユ-ナス - Fu ri - za - bi yu - na su - Freezer Venus
ピグミン - Pi gu mi n - Pygmy? (Green robed enemy)
アイスタワ- Ice Tower? (Icicle enemy)
Stage 6 - バダラ-シツプ - Ba da ra Shi tsu pu - Battle Ship
プロフェツサ- バグラ - Pu ro fe tsu sa - Ba gu ra - Professor Bagura
There are no enemy details for Stage 6, and the final boss is named "?".
The special bouncing bomb item is referred to as:
ゴム - Go mu - Rubber (could be gum, but I doubt it)
Help in parts I am unsure of would be appreciated.
Last edited by Plasma Bomber on Mon Mar 16, 2009 4:41 pm
I point this out in my Bad Bombers thread, but "buku" is an onomatopoeia for the sound of bubbles. Hence, Gamebuku; turtle, bubbles, it works.
The cactus bosses could collectively be referred to as "Ponchos", which makes sense. Even if it's kinda lame.
The ice boss, I always called Freezer Venus. I believe even the European manual calls her that, and I know it's not "bi-nasu", but it's close enough, surely...? Sometimes, slight accentuations are changed just to give emphasis. Especially with monsters and bosses (look at how many daikaijuu's names end in "ra" just for the sake of it)!
Oh, and the flame enemy, Gure-n; that's just a slight distortion of the word for crimson, a common name for fire-based creatures in video games (I think even the living flames in Fire Man's stage back in Mega Man 1 were called this). Most people now know it from the name of the anime, "Gurren Lagann".
My experience of Japanese comes entirely from life experience, hanging out with Japanese-speakers and being raised on Japanese media; I've never had a formal lesson in my life, so I don't know a lot of grammatical rules, but I can be helpful when it comes to the weird or pop culture stuff.
I guess the whole turtle name could work if the names aren't always accurately spelled.
I thought the same thing about the cactus bosses, but as in the case above wasn't really sure about it.
And I like your idea about the snow boss.
Thanks for the heads up on the fire monsters, I know I'd seen them named the same thing in Bomberman Max but didn't know if it meant anything.
So, do you think that the word "buku" in the name of the third planet (bukubuku) is referring to bubbles, and not bukubuku as a whole?
Anyway, thanks! I'll try to translate the manga of Super Bomberman 3.
Love all the work on this stuff. It just reeks of awesome Bomberman geek love. I always get a chuckle when looking over names of characters, so I imagine once I understand more it will be even more amusing to me. Or perhaps aggravating. No idea.
Say, Dragon.... you've got the original Japanese Super Bomberman 2 manual, right? And you've got the English box, so I presume you've got the English manual too. How different is the Japanese one from the English one? As in, is there a manga inside, and is the artwork the same? Just curious...
Anyway, from what I've got so far, the SB3 manual doesn't say anything about the Bagura-Fiendish Bomber relationship. Although, how would Bagura know where to find them if he wasn't their master?
And this Bagura is definately the same guy from Bomberman '94, as it clearly states that he "once again" seeks to take over the universe.
Say, Dragon.... you've got the original Japanese Super Bomberman 2 manual, right? And you've got the English box, so I presume you've got the English manual too. How different is the Japanese one from the English one? As in, is there a manga inside, and is the artwork the same? Just curious...
Anyway, from what I've got so far, the SB3 manual doesn't say anything about the Bagura-Fiendish Bomber relationship. Although, how would Bagura know where to find them if he wasn't their master?
And this Bagura is definately the same guy from Bomberman '94, as it clearly states that he "once again" seeks to take over the universe.
I do not yet have the Japanese version of 1, 2, 4, or 5. I only have 3, the b-daman/bakugaiden games, and Panic Bomber World. I have nearly bought it a ton of times, but always find something that pops on eBay less often. 2 is easy to find, same as 1 in SFC complete shape. Though when I do get it I shall scan away for you, if you still need it by then. I do have the manuals for 1 and 2 US though, but those were easy ones for you to locate I wager.
Speaking of which, I need to get those scans I took of the Saturn Bomberman manuals done for anyone without them. Been so slack on PDF stuff.
I'm getting a bit more adept at translating the Kanji, but I'm not going to post any more of the story manga until I'm sure of it (except for parts that I absolutely cannot figure out). I'll also post the original Japanese as well.
Oh, about Sibaloon, I forgot to reply. Yeah, that probably is what it means, but I found it interesting that it bears the same name as the Karabon Sibaloon, which appears in Bomberman Story/Tournament (maybe others too).
Super Bomberman 4
^ For reference on the page
Anyway, I'm back to translating, and for some reason I started to work on the Super Bomberman 4 manual, so here's what I have. For each panel/section, I'll post the Japanese first, then my translation. For some, they are fuzzy or nonexistant, so please help out with things I'm unsure of if you'd like to.
STORY MANGA
Page 4
[Panel 1 - Shiro and Kuro sleeping in the shuttle]
戦いの日々に追わる
ボンバ-マンたちは,
つかの間の休息を楽しみ
その帰路についていた...
After pursuing evil, Bomberman enjoyed a moment of rest in his everyday life of battles and was on the return route...
[Panel 2 - 4 energy comets flying at the shuttle]
そのシャトルに
忍び寄る,
あやしい4つの光...
Approaching the shuttle in stealth, 4 suspicious lights...
[Panel 3 - Shuttle exploding, Shiro, Kuro, Honey, & Kotetsu fall into black hole, no text]
[Panel 4 - Shiro waking up on dirt]
ブラックホ-ルに
吸い込まわた
ボンバ-マンたちが
たどりついた場所は...
Inhaled by the black hole, Bomberman arrives in a crowded place...
**** Need a second opinion on this one, "crowded" doesn't make sense...
[Panel 5 - Surprised Shiro sees a dinosaur and volcano, red text]
ナント,
原始時代!
What,
prehistoric times!
Page 5
[Panel 6 - Great Bomber speaks to Shiro through the void]
ワタシノナハ
ボンバ-マン-ト.
過去ヲカエ,オマエ
タチノ未来ヲ
ソウサスル.
ソレガ, バグラ-
サマノ意志ダ!
**** I don't really have any idea what is said here. He calls Bagura "Bagura-sama-to" and seems to mention a search or operation and Bagura's intention, which seem to have something to do with capture. Or I could be totally wrong. In any case it's probably the most important panel in the comic, story-wise.
[Panel 7 - Shiro fights his way through the second world]
BOOM
[Panel 8 - Shiro and Kuro dive into a portal, text is on a white caption box]
時空を超えて,
バグラ-の野望を
再び阻止するんだ!
Passing through space-time, Bagura's ambitions are foiled again!
**** Fuzzy on this one
[Panel 9 - Image of Bagura behind the evil Bombers posing, Shiro and Kuro jump out of an explosion looking determined]
未来を守るたぬ,
バグラ-に負けるわけには
いかないんだ!!
Protect the future, it seems impossible but defeat Bagura no matter what!!
****Also fuzzy on this, mostly since I don't know what Great Bomber said.
NORMAL MODE
Now for the normal mode pages. This is from the first one, covering the first world.
Rugged stage with rocks and suspension bridges. Dinosaurs, earthen figures and similar enemies of this old age appear.
**** Could use a double check
[トラップ ]
[Traps]
[落石]
[Falling Rocks]
画面外から落下してく
る岩に接触すると取得したアイテ
ムをばらまいています.
When these rocks fall out from the sides of the screen onto you, items you have are scattered.
[ウッホのアジト]
[Uggho Safe house/hideout]
敵キヤラのウッホが
次々と複 活. 炎 (爆風) を数回
当てることで爆破可能だ.
Uggho enemies exit one after another as you defeat them. With several blasts it is possible to destroy it.
**** The enemy's name is "Utuho", "Utu" means a pained exclamation like "oof" or "ugh", the latter which is a sound often attributed to cavemen, which is why I translated the name as such.
[[乗り物になる 敵キヤラ]]
[[Ridable Enemies]]
**** Actual Japanese name is like "Enemy which becomes the vehicle" or something similar.
トリケラトプス
Triceratops
ゆつくりと歩い
ているが, あな
どわない奴だ.
Walks slowly, but trapping it pays off.
特殊能力=貫通ボム
Special Ability = Pierce Bomb
**** Descriptive text should be accurate, unsure though. I wrote "pays off" since it seems to mention a victory which involves a big payoff, which I took to mean if you defeat the monster you get to ride it.
アンゴラ
Angler
地中にもぐり, ソ
フトブロックをす
り抜けてくる.
Dives underground, slips through Soft Blocks.
特殊能力=ブロック通過
Special Ability = Block Passage
[[BOSS]]
原始機銃ドグ-ン
Primeval Machine Gun Dogu-n
ダナ-ジを受けるたびに
頭から炎の球飛ばして
攻撃してくるぞ. 炎は通
路を動きまわり, 爆弾を
爆発させたり, アイテム
を燃やしてしまう.
ボンバ-四天王
It parries your attacks each time by throwing fireballs from its head. The flame moves and turns through passages, detonating bombs and burning items.
**** For the name, "Dogu" means an earthen/clay figure; the name sounds better in Japanese since you can't really put an "n" at the end of the English meaning.
CHARACTERS
Although the characters all appear in the Battle Mode section, I'll be putting Hammer Bomber's description here. Also:
ボンバ-四天王
Bomber Shitennou/Four Deva Bombers
I know it's been mentioned that they're the "Bomber Shitennou", but... why not Four Deva Bombers?
Anyway.
ハンマ-ボンバ-
Hammer Bomber
ハンマ-を振り回し, 力任せに攻撃し
てくる暴わん坊. 回転の大きさは変化
するが移動速度わらない. 特殊能
力は無制限で使えるそ. ステ-ジ1の
中ボスとしても登場.
Swings his hammer with all his might and strikes. Size of revolution changes with velocity. The use of this special ability is limitless. Appears as the Stage 1 mid-boss.
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